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Environmental and Social Implications of Hydraulic Fracturing and Gas Drilling in the United States: An Integrative Workshop for the Evaluation of the State of Science and Policy

When:

Jan 9 2012 - 8:00am

Where:

Reynolds Theatre, Bryan Center, Duke University

Funded by National Science Foundation

Sponsored by the Nicholas School of the Environment and
the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum at the Duke Law School

Background
Advances in drilling technologies and production strategies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have significantly improved the production of natural gas by stimulating the flow of gas and liquids to and from wells. These new developments have accelerated the shale gas exploitation, which are dramatically changing the energy landscape in the United States. Yet new research is highlighting the environmental risks, economic and social consequences, and consequently the policy that need to make shale-gas extraction as sustainable as possible.

Purposes
The focus of this workshop is to bring together representatives of the different sectors (industry, science, federal agencies, regulators, environmentalists) that will address the environmental and social effects of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling in the United States. The workshop will address the different environmental, legal, and socio-economic components related to hydraulic fracturing and shale gas drilling.

Speakers and Invited Participants

Steven Hamburg is EDF's public voice for its commitment to science-based advocacy and is responsible for the scientific integrity of EDF's positions and programs. He currently co-chairs the Royal Society's Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative, serves on the steering committee of the Forest Health Initiative and the USDA's National Agriculture Research, Economics, Extension and Education Advisory Committee and is a member of the NRC committee reviewing science at the EPA. His training and research specialty is ecosystem ecology, with a focus on forests. He continues to be actively involved in research and publishing in the scientific literature. He holds adjunct/visiting faculty positions at Brown University and the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies. He serves on the Board of Directors of three environmental NGOs and is Board Chair of the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation.

Mr. Parker is a graduate of the University of Texas and Texas A&M University and is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas and Louisiana. Mr. Parker also serves on the Board of Directors of the Armand Bayou Nature Center.

PRESENTATION TITLE: EPA’s Plan to Study the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water ResourcesDAVID JEWETT, Acting Director, NRMRL Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division US Environmental Protection agency, Office of Research and Development

Dr. David Jewett is the Acting Director of the U.S. EPA’s Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division (GWERD). The GWERD, located in Ada, Oklahoma, is one of six research divisions of the EPA's Office of Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory. The GWERD conducts research and provides technical assistance to support the development of strategies and technologies to protect and restore ground water, surface water, and ecosystem resources impacted by man-made and natural events. Dr. Jewett is a hydrogeologist with over 30 years of experience in government, industry, and academia. His research interests include subsurface characterization, understanding contaminant fate and transport, and modeling water flow and solute transport. Dr. Jewett served as the Chief of the GWERD’s Subsurface Remediation Branch prior to accepting the position as Acting Director. Dr. Jewett has a B.S. in geology from Syracuse University, a M.S. in geology from The Wichita State University, and a Ph.D. in hydrology from the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at The University of Arizona.

Arthur E. Berman is a geological consultant with thirty-three years of experience in petroleum exploration and production. He currently is consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector. He frequently gives keynote addresses for investment conferences and is interviewed about energy topics on television, radio, and national print and web publications including CNBC, CNN, Platt’s Energy Week, BNN, Bloomberg, Platt’s, Financial Times, and New York Times.

He is a Director of ASPO-USA (Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas USA). He is a Managing Director and a frequent contributor at The Oil Drum, and an associate editor of the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Bulletin. He was past Editor of the Houston Geological Society Bulletin (2004-2005) and past Vice-President of the Society (2008-2009).

He has published 100 articles on geology, technology, and the petroleum industry during the past 5 years. Publication topics include petroleum exploration, oil and gas price trends and cycles, petroleum play evaluation, sequence stratigraphy, coastal subsidence, earthquakes, tsunamis, and petroleum geopolitics. He has published 11 articles on shale gas plays including the Barnett, Haynesville and Fayetteville shales.

During the past four years, he has made more than 50 presentations to energy sector boards of directors and executive committees, financial analyst conferences, oil & gas association meetings, and engineering and geological society meetings. He is a guest lecturer at the Rice University Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

He worked 20 years from Amoco Corporation (now BP p.l.c.) and has been an independent consulting geologist for 12 years.

He has an M.S. (Geology) from the Colorado School of Mines and a B.A. (History) from Amherst College.

Dominic DiGiulio has a B.S. in environmental engineering from Temple University, a M.S. in environmental science from Drexel University, and a Ph.D. in soil, water, and environmental science from the University of Arizona. He served as a remedial project manager in the Superfund Program at EPA Region III (Philadelphia) for six years. He has conducted research and provided technical assistance to EPA program and regional offices on subsurface gas flow and vapor transport for the past 23 years at EPA’s Office of Research and Development laboratory in Ada, Oklahoma. He has authored a number of EPA reports and journal articles in the areas of soil vacuum extraction, gas sparging, gas permeability testing, soil-gas sampling, vapor intrusion, and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide. He participated in development of EPA guidance on vapor intrusion and the EPA Class VI Rule on geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide.

Robert Howarth is a biogeochemist and ecosystem biologist. He joined the faculty at Cornell University in 1985 and was appointed the David R. Atkinson Professor of Ecology & Environmental Biology in 1993. For the past 35 years he has run an active research program focusing on how human activity affects the environment, with emphases on global change and on coastal ocean water quality. Much of his research focuses on human alteration of the nitrogen cycle at scales from local to regional to global, including both sources of pollution and their consequences. He also works on greenhouse gas emissions (particularly methane and nitrous oxide) and the ecological consequences of oil and gas development.

Howarth earned a BA in Biology from Amherst College in 1974 and a Ph.D. jointly from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1979. Howarth is the Founding Editor of the journal Biogeochemistry and was Editor-in-Chief of the journal from 1983 to 2004. He chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Causes and Consequences of Coastal Marine Eutrophication from 1998-2000, co-chaired the International SCOPE Nitrogen Project from 1992 to 2002, directed the North American Nitrogen Center of the International Nitrogen Initiative from 2003-2006, and has been chair of the International SCOPE Biofuels Project on environmental effects of biofuels since 2007. He is a consultant to the United Nations Environment Program on sustainable resource use, and he has served on 10 other panels and committees of the National Academy of Sciences, including one on oil pollution and one on trace gases and global change. In 2011, he published the first comprehensive analysis of the greenhouse gas footprint of shale gas in Climatic Change Letters and an invited commentary on shale gas in Nature.

Kelvin Gregory is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His research explores the microbiology, ecology, and fundamental interactions between bacteria and their physical and geochemical environment. Dr. Gregory studied Biological Systems Engineering as an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska and later received a doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa, and completed Post-doctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts Environmental Biotechnology Center. His current research interests lie in applied environmental biotechnology and biogeochemistry for management of produced water from oil and natural gas production and control of radionuclide contamination.

PRESENTATION TITLE: How Should We Think About the Economic Consequences of Shale Gas Drilling?SUSAN CHRISTOPHERSON, PROFESSOR, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Susan Christopherson is a Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She is an economic geographer (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) whose research focuses on economic policy and economic development. She has published 56 articles, 26 policy reports, and a prize winning book on these subjects.

Her work in the field of economic development has focused on strategies for revitalizing the New York State economy. Since the mid-2000s, she has completed policy studies on: 1) economic development in the Southern Tier and the Capital District; 2) a clusters strategy to build the photonics industry; 3) the role of universities and colleges in revitalizing regional economies; and 4) production trends affecting media industries in New York City. She has also conducted international research in economic development policy (in Israel, Mexico, China, and Jordan and particularly, in Western Europe). She is currently a consultant to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) project on higher education and regional economic development.

In May 2010 she received grants from the Park Foundation and the Heinz Endowments to direct a study of the economic development consequences of hydro-fracturing natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

PRESENTATION TITLE: Marcellus Shale – Impacts to PA and Its CommunitiesTHOMAS MURPHY, CO-DIRECTOR, PENN STATE MARCELLUS CENTER FOR OUTREACH AND RESEARCH

Tom Murphy is the Co-Director of Penn State’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research(MCOR). He has 25+ years of experience working with landowners, researchers, industry, government agencies, and public officials during his tenure with the Outreach branch of the University. His work has been namely in the realm of educational consultation in natural resource development, with an emphasis specifically in natural gas exploration and related topics. He has lectured widely on unconventional shale gas development and its impacts including landowner leasing issues, environmental aspects, the drilling process, infrastructure development, workforce, and financial considerations. In his role with MCOR, he provides leadership to a range of Penn State’s related Marcellus research activities. Mr. Murphy is a graduate of Penn State University.

PRESENTATION TITLE: Fracturing Regulation AppliedHANNAH WISEMAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW

Professor Hannah Wiseman graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2002 and received her JD from Yale Law School in 2007. Following graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She began her teaching career as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Law and then served as an assistant professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law before arriving at the Florida State University College of Law, where she is currently an assistant professor. She teaches in the areas of energy law, environmental law, property, and land use, and her scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Emory Law Journal, and the Harvard Environmental Law Review, among other journals. Her scholarship focuses on shale gas development and hydraulic fracturing regulation, creative governance of renewable energy, and private rules that shape property uses.

Simona Perry received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where she conducted ethnographic field work in Boston, Massachusetts exploring local socio-cultural interpretations of an urban river, its restoration, and the community health and quality of life implications of urban development. She is interested in the potential of participatory mapping, storytelling, and community dialogue to systematically document social and environmental changes, as well as in their power to inform and transform environmental conflict resolution through individual and collective consciousness-raising. From 2009-2011, Dr. Perry was the Mellon Post-Doctoral Scholar at Dickinson College. During her tenure there, she began a participatory rural mapping project within the Susquehanna River watershed that has now become a long-term study into the cultural and community changes taking place as a result of shale natural gas development in northeastern Pennsylvania. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Perry received a Masters in Policy from the University of Washington, worked as a scientist and regulator with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Massachusetts, California, Seattle, and Washington, DC, and directed the non-profit Biodiversity Education Network.

PRESENTATION TITLE: Methane and water contamination associated with shale gas development and hydro-frackingAVNER VENGOSH, PROFESSOR, DUKE UNIVERSITY

Avner Vengosh is a Professor of Geochemistry and Water Quality and chair
of the Water and Air Resources program at the Nicholas School of
Environment in Duke University (Ph.D. Australian National University,
Australia, 1990). Dr. Vengosh also has a secondary appointment in the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Duke University. He
is an Associate Editor for the international journal Applied
Geochemistry. In 2011 Dr. Vengosh received the International Association
of Geochemistry (IAGC) Fellow award. Dr. Vengosh research aims to
integrate environmental geochemistry, advanced isotope geochemistry
(boron, strontium, carbon, and radium isotopes), and environmental
health (e.g., arsenic in toenails) in order to delineate the sources and
pathways of contaminants in the environment and their possible impacts
on human health. Currently Dr. Vengosh research is focused on three
major themes: (1) Salinization of water resources and impacts on
development and health. Current studies focused on shallow groundwater
in the sub-Saharan basins of Morocco and coastal aquifer of the
southeastern United States. Studies also include the geochemistry of
“new water” generated by reverse osmosis desalination of seawater and
saline groundwater. (2) The energy-water quality-health nexus that
includes (i) studies on the impact of coal combustion products on the
environment (e.g., the TVA coal ash spill in Tennessee); (ii) the origin
of contaminants associated with mountaintop mining in valley fill head
waters in West Virginia; and (iii) the impact of deep shale gas drilling
and hydraulic fracturing on the quality of shallow groundwater and
surface water (methane and brine contamination from the Marcellus Shale,
Pennsylvania). (3) The relationships between groundwater geochemistry,
water quality, and human health in different aquifer systems, worldwide.
Current studies including high arsenic drinking water in private wells
from Union County, North Carolina; high fluoride and arsenic in
groundwater from the Rift Valley in Ethiopia; high salinity, fluoride,
and radium in groundwater in Morocco; and high radium in fossil
groundwater in the Middle East. Studies include developing new
diagnostic tools to evaluate their bioaccumulation in the local
populations by measuring the contaminants in nails and conducting health
surveys in exposed populations.

Invited Participants

ROSEMARY CAPO, ASSOCIATE PROFESSORUNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Rosemary Capo is an Associate Professor of Geology and Planetary Science at the University of Pittsburgh. She received B.S. and M.A. degrees in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Geochemistry from UCLA. She has over 15 years of experience in the analysis of natural waters, mineral, soil, and environmental samples, including four years as a postdoctoral researcher and research scientist at the California Institute of Technology and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her recent work includes the geochemical evolution of AMD, and the characterization and resource recovery of coal mine drainage precipitates. She has collaborated on several fossil fuel-related research projects with the DOE-NETL, including the application of isotopic and geochemical tracers to understand the retention, mobilization, and environmental fate of elements associated with coal fly ash, studies of ground and surface water-rock interaction relevant to geologic carbon sequestration, and as indicators of source and hydrogeology in waters affected by mining and natural gas extraction.

Thomas Darrah is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth, and Ocean Sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a founding Partner of GeoMed Analytical, LLC (Boston, MA). His graduate studies included obtaining a Masters of Science in Geochemistry (Noble Gas Geochemistry) and a PhD in Medical Geochemistry from the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY). He currently serves as the Vice-President of the Geological Society of America’s Division of Geology and Human Health, a Medical Geology Hazard Mitigation Expert to the United Nations (Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo), a co-founder of the Summer School for Medical Geochemistry (Palermo, Italy), and Co-Editor of the first Medical Geochemistry textbook (anticipated Fall 2012, Springer). He has received research funding from the National Children’s Study, the Petroleum Research Fund, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Health, which has led to more than 15 publications on gas, environmental, and biometal chemistry. His research focuses on medical and environmental applications of trace element, isotopic, and noble gas geochemistry. These research interests include developing a fundamental understanding of the interactions that occur between geological and anthropogenic contaminant materials in the environment and their impact on human health. He routinely applies elemental and isotopic mass spectrometric techniques, traditionally rooted in geochemistry, to performing environmental bioincorporation and human health impact assessments of environmental exposures.

MARK ENGLE, RESEARCH GEOLOGISTUS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Dr. Engle is a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Eastern Energy Resource Science Center and serves as the chief of the USGS Energy Resources Program’s produced waters project. He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in hydrogeology from the University of Nevada, Reno and a B.S. with emphasis in geology and chemistry from The Evergreen State College. Mark joined the USGS in 2005 as a Mendenhall Postdoctoral Fellow and has studied and published on topics ranging from cycling and deposition of atmospheric mercury to assessing greenhouse gas emissions from coal seam fires. His current research includes characterization, source, flow, and beneficial use of waters produced during energy generation and production.

Pierre Glynn’s background includes a B.A. from Columbia College and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, an M.Sc. from University of Quebec in Montreal in isotopic environmental geochemistry, and a Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, where his studies focused on groundwater hydrology and the thermodynamics of water-rock interactions. Pierre (https://profile.usgs.gov/pglynn/) works for the U.S. Geological Survey, where he currently serves as Eastern Branch Chief for the National Research Program in Reston, VA. The scientists in his Branch conduct research on numerical modeling of water flow and solute transport, environmental isotope forensics and characterization, groundwater dating, water and sediment contamination problems, nutrient cycling, ecological habitats, geomorphic processes, and the application of molecular and other techniques to the study of microbial processes. Beyond his Branch responsibilities, Pierre has undertaken a diversity of assignments for the USGS, including the advancement of integrated environmental and ecological modeling, small watershed research, and 3D/4D modeling and visualization tools. Pierre’s research at the USGS has focused on geochemical modeling and characterization of groundwater contamination, nuclear waste disposal, groundwater dating studies, and the thermodynamics of mineral-water reactions.

For almost 30 years, Rick Hammack has been investigating new ways to lessen the environmental effects of energy production, particularly its impacts to water. His research has included new methods for treating impaired waters from coal mining and metallurgical processing. More recently, he has concentrated on treating or managing produced water from unconventional gas production including shale gas and coalbed methane.

ABBY KINCHY, ASSISTANT PROFESSORRENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Dr. Abby J. Kinchy is a sociologist whose research deals with questions about science, technology, agriculture, and the environment. She has a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has been an assistant professor in the Science and Technology Studies Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute since 2007. She was drawn to the topic of Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in 2008 when industry activity began to rapidly increase in Bradford County, PA, the place where she grew up. She has been a volunteer participant in a watershed monitoring project since 2009. Prior to working on the topic of natural gas development, Kinchy’s research addressed a variety of topics, including global conflicts over genetically engineered foods, the participation of ecologists in political controversies, and the history of the atomic bomb in American politics. She has a forthcoming book with MIT Press about international struggles for agricultural alternatives to genetically engineered crops.

JEFFREY C KINGWINSTEAD PC

Jeff King graduated from the Texas Tech School of Law, cum laude, in 1987. His practice focuses on oil and gas litigation. He has handled cases involving all types of disputes that involve the oil and gas industry from reservoir damage allegations, to environmental contamination claims, to royalty disputes, to conflicts between interest owners, to securities law cases. Mr. King is presently representing parties in five (5) cases wherein it is alleged that groundwater was contaminated as a result of hydraulic fracture stimulation. Jeff is a frequent author and speaker on oil and gas topics and has published several articles concerning issues that affect the industry. He has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America by his peers since 2007, and was Strathmore's Who's Who Professional of the Year for 2011 in Oil and Gas Litigation. He was also selected to the Dallas Business Journal's Who's Who in 2011 for the Oil and Gas Industry. Mr. King has been AV rated by the prestigious Martindale Hubbell since 2005 and was recognized as a Fort Worth Power Attorney in 2008 by the Fort Worth Business Press.

KENNETH M. KLEMOW, ASSOCIATE DIRECTORINSTITUTE FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AT WILKES UNIVERSITY

A native of Hazleton, PA, Ken Klemow received his B.S. from the University of Miami and Ph.D. from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. Ken’s primary research focus is on the ecology of plant populations and communities in mined and quarried habitats. He has served on the faculty of Wilkes University for almost thirty years, where he teaches courses in biology, botany, ecology, and alternative energy. His research interests expanded to include conservation of rare species and wetland ecology. He consults on rare plant and wetland impacts for proposed wind farm projects and other clients. For more than 20 years, Ken has been active at the national level on ecology education issues. He organized the Ecological Society of America’s Education section, and helped to lead initiatives to incorporate technology into the ecology classroom. He currently serves as an editor for the ESA’s EcoEd Digital Library. In 2010, Ken received the ESA’s Eugene Odum Award for Outstanding Ecology Education. Ken currently serves as the Associate Director of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research at Wilkes University. In that capacity, he is the Principal Investigator of an $880K DOE contract aimed at examining surface water impacts and improving public understanding of Marcellus Shale development in northeastern PA.

JENNIFER MCINTOSH, ASSISTANT PROFESSORUNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Dr. Jennifer McIntosh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona (UA), a Joint Faculty member in the UA Geosciences Department, and an Adjunct Research Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. She received her B.A. in Geology-Chemistry from Whitman College (1998), and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Michigan (2004). She also completed a 2-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in Earth and Planetary Sciences, before starting at UA in 2006. She recently served as a science theme leader for the 2011 EPA Technical Workshop on Hydraulic Fracturing.

Dr. McIntosh’s research primarily focuses on the elemental and isotopic geochemistry of formation waters and gas in fractured shales, coalbeds, and shallow aquifers to determine the origin of natural gas (e.g. biogenic versus thermogenic), sources of solutes, residence times and recharge history of fluids, and fluid compartmentalization/leakage pathways. She has published over 20 papers on the composition, origin, and migration pathways of natural gas and formation waters in sedimentary basins world-wide, including the Appalachian, Michigan, Illinois, Powder River, Velenje and Gulf Coast basins. For more information, see Dr. McIntosh’s website: www.hwr.arizona.edu/mcintosh.

Bryce is the senior staff geologist at Shell’s Warrendale, Pennsylvania office. He is responsible for oversight and technical assurance of well planning and operations and field development planning within Shell Appalachia’s development team. He is also the subsurface technical focal point for Shell’s multidisciplinary groundwater protection and stray gas mitigation team. Bryce has 26 years of oil industry experience, having worked on both exploration and production projects in the North Sea, Middle East, Poland, Trinidad, Argentina, offshore Brazil, offshore Australia, offshore West Africa, East Texas, South Texas, the Permian Basin, and the Gulf of Mexico. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1984 and a Master of Science Degree in 1986, both in Geology, from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Bryce is a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Pittsburgh Society of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and the Houston Geological Society. A Pennsylvania native, Bryce spent the last 38 years living and working in Texas. He requested a transfer to his hometown of Pittsburgh when Shell started operations there in 2010, and lives there now with his wife in Sewickley, PA.

Nathan Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment, and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies at Boston University. Before arriving at BU in 2000, Nathan earned a bachelor’s degree in Physics from the California State University, a PhD in Physiological Ecology from the Nicholas School of the Environment; and held a postdoc in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University from 1998-2000. Nathan’s interests in tree and forest physiological ecology have broadened to an examination of the structure and function of resource distribution networks in general, from trees and forests to infrastructure systems.

JUSTIN POGACNIK, RESEARCH SCIENTISTINSTITUTE OF EARTH SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND, NZ

Justin Pogacnik received his BS from Arkansas State University in Civil Engineering in 2005. He earned an MS in Civil Engineering from Duke in 2007 and finished his PhD from the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke last year. He is currently as postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Earth Science and Engineering at the University of Auckland. His research is focused on developing and utilizing the finite element method to model geothermal flows in Engineered Geothermal Systems.

KINGA REVESZ, RESEARCH CHEMISTUS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Kinga Revesz graduated with a degree in colloid chemistry from the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, and a PhD in colloid chemistry and physical chemistry from József Attila University, Szeged, Hungary. Her research is broadly concerned with the use of stable isotopes (primarily hydrogen, carbon and oxygen) to examine the dynamics of hydrological systems and associated geochemical problems. She performs studies in the identification and quantification of ground-water recharge, discharge, surface-water/ground-water interaction, redox processes in contaminated aquifers, as well as source identification of stray methane gas in drinking water wells. Kinga develops new sample- preparation techniques in the laboratory, including inlet systems for continuous- flow isotope- ratio analytical techniques , such as EA, TC/EA, GPI, Gasbench, GCC, TC/GCC, and TIC/TOC and publishes SOPs in the U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods Book 10.For more information: see Kinga’s profile at https://profile.usgs.gov/krevesz/.

Brian Stewart is an Associate Professor of Geology and Planetary Science at the University of Pittsburgh. He has a BS in Geology from Brown University and a PhD in Geochemistry from UCLA. Following his PhD work on the “plumbing systems” of volcanoes, he carried out research on meteorites and early solar system evolution as a postdoc at Caltech, and later on cation cycling in soils as a postdoc at UC Riverside. Since moving to Pittsburgh, he has focused on the application of radiogenic isotopes such as 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd to problems in soil development (modern and ancient), weathering on a watershed scale, and in situ geochronology for planetary exploration. More recently, he has applied isotope systems to environmental issues related to fossil fuel extraction, including leaching of coal fly ash, tracking of flowback waters from Marcellus shale gas production, and storage of CO2 in geologic formations. He collaborates extensively with colleagues from the DOE National Energy Technology Lab in applying new isotope systems to address these energy-related issues.

Jordan Treakle is a native North Carolinian and graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He works for the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI-USA), which is a farmer advocacy non-profit organization based in Pittsboro, NC. In 2010 RAFI began working to inform landowners about property rights and predatory mineral rights leases as part of its Contract Agricultural Reform program. Over the past year Jordan has been working closely with the NC Agricultural Extension Centers, local churches, and community groups to distribute information on mineral rights contracts and the potential impacts of drilling to farmers and rural landowners in the shale regions of North Carolina.

KATE WATTERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTORCRUDE ACCOUNTABILITY

Kate Watters is co-founder and Executive Director of Crude Accountability, an environmental justice nonprofit organization that works with natural resource impacted communities in the Caspian Sea region. Kate works closely with activists in affected communities and has conducted a wide variety of trainings and workshops, including on human rights awareness, popular epidemiology, and community air monitoring. She has also trained local activists to understand compliance and accountability mechanisms at the World Bank. Kate has been working with human rights and environmental activists in the former Soviet Union since the early 1990s, has traveled extensively throughout the region and speaks fluent Russian. She has published numerous articles on civil society in Central Asia and the Caspian region. Kate has an MA in Russian Area Studies from Georgetown University, and a BA in Russian literature from UMASS-Amherst.

Dr. Richard Wilkin is an environmental geochemist at EPA’s National Risk Management Research Laboratory. His research deals primarily with groundwater contaminants and the biogeochemical processes controlling the fate of these contaminants. A major focus of his work has been the application and development of permeable reactive barriers and monitored natural attenuation for remediation of groundwater impacted by metals and radionuclides. Currently, he is a Principal Investigator on several field investigations related to EPA’s National Study on Hydraulic Fracturing.

Dr. Wilkin holds Ph.D. in Geosciences from the Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the Geochemical Society, Geological Society of America, and the Mineralogical Society of America. He serves on the editorial boards of the publications Chemical Geology, American Mineralogist, and Geochemical Transactions.

MICHEL BOUFADEL, PROFESSOR AND CENTER DIRECTORTEMPLE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Michel Boufadel is Professor and Director of the Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a Professional Engineer in Environmental Engineering in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in the State of New Jersey (USA) He is also a Professional Hydrologist as accredited by the American Institute of Hydrology (USA). He has been the lead researcher on various projects funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Dr. Boufadel specializes in large-scale projects, and his Center is currently investigating the Exxon Valdez spill which occurred in 1989 and the Gulf spill that occurred in 2010.

Dr. Boufadel served on the EPA Science Advisory Board for hydrofracking, and he is currently serving on National Academies committee on the Gulf Spill.

Dr. Boufadel is the author of more than 60 journal articles in publications such as NATURE geosciences, Environmental Geology, and Water Resources Research.

Dan Soeder is a geologist with the U.S. Department of Energy at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia, where his interests include energy and environmental issues related to unconventional fossil energy resources. Prior to joining DOE in 2009, Mr. Soeder was a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in the mid-Atlantic region, after spending eight years at the Nevada Test Site. His career before joining the USGS in 1991 included a decade of research on unconventional natural gas resources at the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago, and several years characterizing drill cores on the DOE Eastern Gas Shales Project. Mr. Soeder received a BS degree in geology from Cleveland State University in 1976, and an MS in geology from Bowling Green State University (Ohio) in 1978.

Jonas Monast directs the climate and energy program at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Jonas’s work focuses on the interaction of energy policies at various levels of government, regulatory options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the intersection of financial markets and climate policy, and outreach to policymakers and stakeholders. He served as an advisor to the Western Climate Initiative’s Market Oversight Task Group and coordinated the Nicholas Institute’s Carbon Market Initiative. Prior to joining Duke, Jonas worked as an attorney in the Corporate Social Responsibility Practice at Foley Hoag LLP where he advised clients on emerging legal and reputational risks regarding social, environmental, and ethical issues. Jonas also served as a congressional fellow for the late Senator Paul Wellstone and as legislative counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University and his bachelor's degree from Appalachian State University.